ATH Curtis Carter

The guys that had the most speed were just too slow at picking up the D. If you saw players wide open it was most often because of mistakes in coverage.

Besides, Ali Highsmith started at LB on a National championship team in this system and ran like 4.9 40 in the combine.

Obviously you want fast players, but if they are too dumb to make the field then it's a waste of a scholly.

 
HuskerRob said:
Where is this defensive speed you talk about? Is it in our safety's (Asante, Thenarse, O'Hanlon) that are consistently getting burned by TE's from Colorado? Please tell me where is the defensive speed?

Where's this defensive speed? I didn't see it when Missouri was scoring at will at Memorial, or when Oklahoma absolutely burnt us off the field in the first quarter, or when Robert Griffin was dancing his way into the endzone from 50 yards out. If Griffin doesn't injure his ankle in 08, Baylor would've walked out of Memorial with a W.
Click to expand...
Really? You mean the CU TE that was wide open cause of blown coverage or the fact that Mizzou nickle and dimed it all of the way down the field on us or the 4 turnover's in the OU game were all because of lack of speed? And Robert Griffin is an athletic freak who runs track, so having 11 guys that can keep up on D would be amazing. There's speed on the defense, you're just to0 caught up in the negatives to realize it.

 
I'm with you on that one OPH. Not to bash you, Rob, but we have decent speed on the defensive side of the ball. Now, not blazing speed or anything that's gonna make people go "WOW", but we're getting there. We're stockpiling faster guys... it's just like last years season. You can get caught up in us maybe having a shot to be 10-2 after the regular season if we could've snuck wins from the two Techs we played, but we made geniune, real progress from '07. 9 wins, including a bowl win over a decent team in amazing comeback fashion... wow that last defensive series was nerve rattling! Sorry, back on topic... we're slowly improving our team speed. Real progress, even if it is slow. Last year, people getting burnt on D had more to do with the mental aspect... they were just out of position. Asking guys that far out of position to catch up to their man is just unfair.

 
huskers1 said:
husker rob, talk about pessamistic. Nobody said we have proven speed demons all over our defense we said we have speed on defense, big difference. There is no way you can deny that we have speed. May, Compton, Fisher, Whaley, Lawrence all have 4.5-4.6 speed at LB. Amukamara, Dennard, PJ Smith, Hagg, West all run anywhere bt high 4.3s to high 4.4s. Allen, Turner, Williams, Meredith all run very well for d linemen. The major upgrade in speed has been at LB over the last couple years with the additions of Whaley, Compton, Fisher and May. It just doesn't make sense for you to compare this years d to last years. Potter was a good player but speed was not his game, same goes for Seivers. Wortman was pretty slow for a LB and Glenn was suspended for quite a few games and Koehler is slow for a LB as well. It's just not comparing apples to apples when you compare last years speed to this years speed.
Click to expand...

I seriously doubt if any of those mentioned run under a 4.4. In fact, I doubt that Amukamara, Hagg, Denard, West or Smith --- any of them, run under a 4.5. All are modestly fast. Dennard especially (he might be a hair under 4.5 electronic). But... an electronic sub 4.4 is almost unheard of. In the NFL that is rare. very rare.

As for the LB's here at NU. Not one is under 4.6 electronic --- guaranteed. All are between 4.6 and 4.7.

I am not saying these guys are slow. They are not. they are of reasonable speed (neither overly fast nor overly slow). And yes, probably faster than their recent NU counterparts who have been rather slow. I am simply saying that a 4.6 electronic is fast --- quite fast for a LB and a 4.5 is fast for a college player in the secondary.

 
I agree with you, I was just simply making a statement that we have speed not specifying bt hand held and electronic. However, I would be willing to bet that Prince has high 4.3 speed, dude has wheels. My point was that Fisher, Compton, Whaley, May..all of them are with the exception of Octavian and maybe Glenn, faster than any linebacker we have had in the past 5 years. Also with the weight training now apparently emphasizing speed they will get faster and have better burst with each passing day.

 
huskers1 said:
I agree with you, I was just simply making a statement that we have speed not specifying bt hand held and electronic. However, I would be willing to bet that Prince has high 4.3 speed, dude has wheels. My point was that Fisher, Compton, Whaley, May..all of them are with the exception of Octavian and maybe Glenn, faster than any linebacker we have had in the past 5 years. Also with the weight training now apparently emphasizing speed they will get faster and have better burst with each passing day.
Click to expand...

I am good to go --- I understand and agree with everything except one point. I have not seen prince Amukamara display the speed you have witnessed for him. You may be right --- perhaps he is that fast, but if so... I have not seen it. Actually, to me if any one guy stands out as being faster than the others it is Dennard.

And, as I say, Dennard is maybe... maybe a shade below 4.5. I'd guess that Prince is a shade above 4.5.

But who knows.

Your point is well taken. Nu is faster than before but is still not what anyone can call fast enough to hang with the big boys.

Like other aspects of NU.... it is getting better.... but is still a ways off from where we want to be.

 
Again... :backtotopic :backtotopic :backtotopic :backtotopic

My thoughts are the guy will get tired of being slow played by LSU, and commit to GBR! :restore

 
robsker said:
huskers1 said:
I agree with you, I was just simply making a statement that we have speed not specifying bt hand held and electronic. However, I would be willing to bet that Prince has high 4.3 speed, dude has wheels. My point was that Fisher, Compton, Whaley, May..all of them are with the exception of Octavian and maybe Glenn, faster than any linebacker we have had in the past 5 years. Also with the weight training now apparently emphasizing speed they will get faster and have better burst with each passing day.
Click to expand...

I am good to go --- I understand and agree with everything except one point. I have not seen prince Amukamara display the speed you have witnessed for him. You may be right --- perhaps he is that fast, but if so... I have not seen it. Actually, to me if any one guy stands out as being faster than the others it is Dennard.

And, as I say, Dennard is maybe... maybe a shade below 4.5. I'd guess that Prince is a shade above 4.5.

But who knows.

Your point is well taken. Nu is faster than before but is still not what anyone can call fast enough to hang with the big boys.

Like other aspects of NU.... it is getting better.... but is still a ways off from where we want to be.
Click to expand...
I agree with everything you said Robsker. Yes, we are making progress with our defensive speed, and somewhat offensively, but we are nowhere near the level we need to be at to compete at the BCS level.

 
Got Carl? said:
The Maudfather said:
Again... :backtotopic :backtotopic :backtotopic :backtotopic

My thoughts are the guy will get tired of being slow played by LSU, and commit to GBR! :restore
Click to expand...
:yeah

I think he is already tired of it. He's obviously not an idiot, Les, he knows exactly what you're doing. I hope it bites Miles in the butt at this point.
Click to expand...
i donno, Les Miles is good recruiter. He knows what he's doing

 
Last edited by a moderator:
HuskerRob said:
Where is this defensive speed you talk about? Is it in our safety's (Asante, Thenarse, O'Hanlon) that are consistently getting burned by TE's from Colorado? Please tell me where is the defensive speed? I haven't seen it. Amukamara hasn't done anything yet, and i'm very concerned with our defensive backs this year, outside of Eric Hagg. He's an absolute stud, and he needs to see the field as a safety this year. Too big a talent to not be starting.

Where's this defensive speed? I didn't see it when Missouri was scoring at will at Memorial, or when Oklahoma absolutely burnt us off the field in the first quarter, or when Robert Griffin was dancing his way into the endzone from 50 yards out. If Griffin doesn't injure his ankle in 08, Baylor would've walked out of Memorial with a W.

I'm very hopeful for the 2009 Huskers, and yes, I agree that there will be an upgrade in speed from last year, but that isn't saying much. I'm just not ready to say that this team has enough speed, especially on defense. I'm looking for May, Fisher, Compton, and Hagg to step up.

Plain and simple, speed is the number one priority when it comes to recruiting for the big red at this point.
Click to expand...
Inability to understand drops and reads in zone coverages is a HUGE difference from lacking speed. Again, that is the mental part we lack with quite a few players on defense.

Guys like Asante, Thenarse, Amukamara, Dennard, heck even Culbert while he was here were terrific athletes. They just have a bad problem with football knowledge and read recognition.

Robert Griffin raced to the end zone because of bad angles and poor tackling. Again, that is not a speed problem. But then again, even if it wasn't that, I doubt not being able to chase a B12 sprinter down is such a bad thing. Or maybe that's just me. :dunno

Again, our defensive problems have absolutely nothing to do with lack of athleticism. It has EVERYTHING to do with blown assignments, poor recognition, poor tackling .. hell, just poor fundamentals in general that need to be cleaned up. Toward the end of the year, we saw that.

 
Back
Top